


Legacy of Dragon Blood

by EHyde



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Gen, the dragon gods suck pass it on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2019-01-05 05:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12183540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EHyde/pseuds/EHyde
Summary: The original dragon warriors lived long lives. The later generations...not so much. Shuten's son, the second green dragon warrior, must learn a hard truth about what it means to carry--and pass on--the dragon's blood.





	Legacy of Dragon Blood

One kick was all it took, thankfully, since it seemed that one kick was all he had left in him. It was a good thing Ameya hadn’t had the energy for a high jump, or he wouldn’t have seen the woman being attacked. As it was, he’d been able to drop his pack onto the attacker’s head, then finish him off with a kick to the chest. “Are you all right, miss?”

The woman–perhaps too old to be called miss, but Ameya wouldn’t let that stop him–grinned at him. “I am, thanks to you. But it looks like your bag isn’t.” Books, which had made up most of the weight of Ameya’s pack, lay strewn across the muddy path. He’d worked hard to get those, but what could he do? In such a situation, his heavy pack had made a safer weapon than a deadly spear. “Come home with me, I’ll patch that bag up for you,” the woman said, pointing to the long split seam running down the side of his pack. “It’s the least I can do.”

Ameya found himself leaning on his spear more than usual as he walked after the woman. That kick had taken more out of him than he’d thought–it would be good to rest for a while. As they walked, the woman looked back at him. “You flew down from the sky,” she said. And Ameya’s green curls, hidden now by his cloak, had been plain to see. “Are you the Green Dragon?”

“The Green Dragon was my father,” said Ameya. There were times he kept that secret, but he could see no reason to right now. “I’m just a traveler.”

“My father served in King Hiryuu’s army,” said the woman. “Just infantry, though.”

“Well, you could call my father a foot soldier too,” Ameya quipped. “I’m Ameya,” he added.

“Jiyi.”

Jiyi lived alone, in a small cottage at the edge of a small village. As soon as they entered, she began heating water for tea, then set about getting needle and thread to repair Ameya’s pack. “Say, Jiyi,” Ameya began. “The man who attacked you–do you know him?”

“…how did you know?”

“It’s rare for just one man to go after someone like that. And this area isn’t known for bandits.” He paused as Jiyi continued working in silence. “I didn’t mean to pry, it’s just–I can’t stay here for long. Will you be safe?”

“I doubt he’ll try anything again,” said Jiyi. “But I’ll be more careful. Still,” she added, “you can spend the night, at least. It’s getting late.”

“I could still travel a good distance tonight…” But he nodded. Resting here, rather than in the wilderness or an in full of strangers, would be a welcome change.

Years ago, Ameya might have tarried longer in a place like this. In fact, it was a similar situation that had led him to settle down in the place he now called home in the first place. He remembered his mother’s tales of trekking across two nations in search of Shuten, his father. Now that Ameya had a daughter of his own, he had promised to always return to her–even if he still couldn’t resist the urge to take to the skies.

As Jiyi began to stitch up the pack, Ameya scraped mud off the covers of his books and set them in front of the fire to dry. Fortunately, the pages were mostly fine. “What are all these?” Jiyi asked.

“For my daughter,” Ameya explained. “Varen. She’s almost six, just learning to read. I thought I’d go back to some of the places I’ve been, get her some souvenirs. It’s her birthday in a few days,” he explained. “Someday, she’ll travel the world too, but for now, she loves hearing stories.” Perhaps they’d even travel the world together. Ameya had lost his own father far too young–but Shuten had waited until much later in life to have children. Ameya had plenty of time to watch his daughter grow…even if he could already feel weaken as it passed to her.

“This is a treatise on the construction of the roads through the northern mountains,” commented Jiyi. “Seems a little dense for a five-year-old.”

“Ah, well, every engineering team needs a surveyor,” said Ameya. “I told her those stories, so…”

“And a history of the rebellion in the water country?”

“Ahh, don’t let it out that I was involved with that…”

“I see,” said Jiyi with a smile. “So Hiryuu’s dragons protect Kouka even now.” Ameya had never thought of it like that. He just helped out where he could–traveling all across the kingdom, seeing all that he did, how could he not? He wondered if the others’ children, too, led their own quietly influential lives. “Your daughter,” said Jiyi. “Is she—?”

Ameya nodded. “I don’t know why, but it seems this dragon blood has made its home on earth, even if Hiryuu is long gone.” That blood still longed for its king, so much so that Ameya had always felt called to him, despite having never met the man. He’d sought him out in stories instead, first from his father, then from others who’d known King Hiryuu. But Varen would be hard pressed to learn of Hiryuu from anything but history books and secondhand tales. Would her blood pull her towards him all the same?

“The gods work in mysterious ways,” Jiyi murmured. “If it weren’t for my father’s stories, I’d never have believed the four dragons’ powers were real. Honestly, knowing my father, I still had my doubts. But here you are.”

“Here I am,” Ameya agreed.

They both finished their work–Ameya’s pack as good as new, his books dirty but legible–and Ameya helped Jiyi cook up a meal for them both. The bed she offered him wasn’t much more than a blanket by the fire, but it was as welcome as anywhere he’d ever slept. The next morning, Jiyi asked if he was sure he didn’t want to stay another day, but no–he had to be home in time for Varen’s birthday, after all, and a journey from one side of the peninsula to the other would take even him several days. With a smile and one last wave as Jiyi watched from below, Ameya took to the skies once again.

Sharp, sudden pain shot up his leg as he touched down. Ameya tumbled to the ground. He relied on the strength of his dragon leg to make his landings, and it had failed him. Why—? He sank back to his knees after trying to stand and failing. It didn’t feel like anything was broken, but it wasn’t just that his dragon’s strength was gone–he couldn’t put any weight on his leg at all.

Frantically, Ameya tore off his boot. Not a single green scale met his eye. Just a normal, human foot. The scales had begun to recede from his leg ever since Varen was born, but slowly–they had still almost reached his knee just yesterday. To vanish so suddenly—

_The same thing happened to Shuten, in the days before his death._

But Shuten had been in his sixties. Ameya wasn’t even thirty. This shouldn’t be happening to him now!

He took a few tentative steps, using his spear as a cane, and winced. He’d never make it far like this. He needed…if he wanted to get home, he needed a horse. In all his years adventuring, he’d never learned to ride a horse.

Ameya looked around. There were no roads here; as always, he’d tried to avoid attention when touching down. No sign of civilization at all. Going back to Jiyi’s village might be his best option, but even that one jump had brought him far enough that, like this, returning there might be a full day’s journey. Could he even find his way back, on the ground?

_Please, dragon god!_

He wouldn’t make it home in time for his daughter’s birthday. He could only pray he’d make it home at all.

**Author's Note:**

> In my fic [A Distant Sunrise](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8537701/chapters/19573402), there’s a subplot involving the mother of Shuten’s son traveling to search for him. About halfway through writing it, it occurred to me that that cute dragon toddler would meet a tragic end, since the second generation would have no way of knowing they’d have short lifespans. This…is what came of that.


End file.
